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Teen girls now drink as much as the boys — lured to imbibe in part by advertising that targets young women — and it’s putting their health at risk, Dr. Ken Flegel wrote in a CMAJ editorial released Monday.

To that end, the Montreal physician and McGill University professor is calling for warning labels on booze that are just as graphic as those on cigarette packages. They would point out the links between alcohol and a variety of health risks — including breast, stomach, throat and digestive tract cancers.

Flegel writes in the CMAJ the alcohol beverage industry has used advertising “to grant a form of equality to young women that perhaps the women’s movement never intended.”

“We’re getting the old Virginia Slims thing,” said Flegel, recalling the American cigarette ads launched in the late 1960s that used women smoking as evidence of feminism.

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Alcohol use is especially concerning as it raises the risk of breast cancer, and even as little as one drink a day can be harmful, he says, pointing out that “the earlier you start in life, the more alcohol exposure.”

“The worrying thing in this is one in 10 women is going to (be diagnosed) with breast cancer and anything we can do to reduce that risk is good.”

He also stressed while the alcohol industry can’t direct advertising at teen drinkers or feature teen role models, studies show girls today see 30 per cent more distilled spirit ads than women of legal age do, thanks to following magazines and other advertising that targets older female consumers.

“What we are hoping to do with the (CMAJ) editorial is not be paternalistic,” said Flegel. “These girls have the same right to information as adults do. You are being used by adult advertising and profit-making industry.”

Dr. Gerald Thomas, a senior researcher and policy analyst for the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, has done extensive research on youth and drinking habits. He says while he applauds young women exploring freedom of choice around their bodies, “I don’t think it should mean women should drink like a man to prove they’re equal.”

Thomas points to a Canadian Community Health Survey that shows 30 per cent of underage girls were engaging in risky drinking (more than three drinks on one occasion consumed monthly or more often in the past year), a figure that’s about the same as boys.

He said “conscious effort of the alcohol industry to feminize” product lines means there are more beverages targeted to young women, including the burgeoning group of alcopop brands: brightly coloured, sweet drinks.

“We live in a society where alcohol advertising is ubiquitous and these drinks are more palatable,” said Thomas.

Dr. Robert Mann, a senior scientist at Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, pointed to the 2011 edition of the Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey, done every two years since 1977 among students in Grades 7-12. It shows girls and boys are drinking at similar rates, including binge drinking.

“We’ve seen since back in the late 1990s, the percentage of males who were binge drinking as about double females,” said Mann. Girls have since caught up, with 22 per cent reporting binge drinking at least once in the past month. That’s defined as more than five drinks on one occasion for boys and more than four for girls, reflecting their smaller body weight.

“We ask young people in the survey: ‘Do you think the alcohol advertisers are advertising to you?’ A lot think that’s the case,” said Mann. “The ads are appealing to them and a lot of them thing the ads are directed at them.”

Mann said while messages about the dangers of drinking and driving are getting through to young people, there’s no evidence girls are hearing warnings about alcohol leaving them open to risks of violence, sexual assault or unsafe sexual activity, or the negative impact it can have on their health.

Ontario Medical Association president Dr. Scott Wooder, a family physician in Stoney Creek, said he always brings up the topic of drinking with young female patients.

“It’s one of the questions I ask. I never know for sure if I get an honest response, but I think just being open on the subject will start the conversation,” said Wooder, who adds underage drinking among teens is not a new issue, although its frequency is.

“It does seem to be getting worse,” he added. “People are drinking at young ages and there’s more binge drinking.”

“Alcohol is the one of the only if not the only products for sale in Canada that can kill you without a warning (label),” Thomas pointed out. “There’s no excuse for that.”

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